Immune System: Enable

There's a bug going around, and I just hung out at the apartment of an infected one. Rachel's fine, but Josh has it. He was asleep in the other room, but still. No sick for me!

And in case you were wondering what sort of bug, I leave you with part of a song:

When you're climbing up a ladder and you hear something splatter...

haha, eww.

Happy Christmas!

I'm British! umm.... So I'm a little upset that I can't find the USB cable that I bought about a year ago to upload some pictures on this computer. My parents like to "clean" and "organize" which means "lose things" to me. That's ok.

Anyway, my family celebrated Christmas on Saturday, the 23rd, which was also the last day of Hanukah. This was because my aunt and uncle spent yesterday and today with my aunt's family in Santa Ana, Texas (yes, a town named after the Mexican general!). So, I feel like my Christmas schedule is all outta whack. It was funny coming back from Boerne and seeing parking lots full of last-minute Christmas shoppers' cars, trucks, and SUVs. My grandma stayed with us Saturday and Sunday night, so at least there was some out-of-town company. I made her and my parents open their presents from me last night since it was Christmas Eve, and not Christmas Eve Eve Day......

I had asked my mom what to get her and my dad, and she said she needed glasses and silicone potholder things, and my dad needed a hose and one of those long-neck sprayer attachments. So, that's what I got them... But what's funny is that a few days later after I had already bought my dad a hose, I asked him what to get my grandma. He said, "She needs a hose!" Boy, was I lucky that I could keep a straight face. So, I went back to Lowe's and bought the exact same one for her. I had never bought a hose before, and last week I bought two!

Wanna look like a model?

haha, wow... Well, you won't look like yourself!

Yes or No?

One of my friends posted this on myspace, and here I am posting it on my blog. Whoopeeee.

Yes or No game
Rule #1: You can only say Yes or No!

Rule #2: You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages you and asks!

Q: Kissed someone on your top friends?
A: no

Q: Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back?
A: yes

Q: Been arrested?
A: no

Q: Kissed someone you didn't like?
A: no

Q: Slept in until 5 PM?
A: no

Q: Held a snake?
A: yes

Q: Been suspended from school?
A: no

Q: Been fired from a job?
A: no

Q: Sang karaoke?
A: no

Q: Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?
A: yes

Q: Laughed until you started crying?
A: yes

Q: Caught a snowflake on your tongue?
A: yes

Q: Kissed in the rain?
A: no

Q: Sang in the shower?
A: yes

Q: Sat on a roof top?
A: yes

Q: Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on?
A: yes

Q: Broken a bone?
A: no

Q: Shaved your head?
A: no

Q: Blacked out?
A: no

Q: Played a prank on someone?
A: yes

Q: Had a gym membership?
A: yes

Q: Felt like killing someone?
A: no

Q: Made an ex girlfriend/boyfriend cry?
A: no

Q: Cried over someone you love or like?
A: yes

Q: Shot a gun?
A: no

Q: Tripped on mushrooms?
A: no

Q: Donated Blood?
A: yes-ish

Q: Still like/love someone you shouldn't?
A: no

Haha, at first I thought "tripped on mushrooms" literally meant tripping over some mushrooms on the ground...... This was boring, but it was something, eh?

The old man is snoring.

It's raining.

That means I can't go running.

And the treadmill has presents on it.

Darn.

Scrape, scrape...

So I'm in Texas again (you can be jealous..or not, if you are in Texas!) and my parents are redoing the living room. They are always redoing something, by the way; my mom picks colors and decorative things, and my dad does the renovating/building. Just so you know, I blame this all on HGTV and DIY. Anyway, the living room floor and stairs are now hardwood after being carpeted for this house's 27 years of existence. The carpet had been changed before, but it's just weird because I grew up in this house and now the living room is very echoey. haha, I should give recitals in it! umm, no...

The stairs aren't quite complete, and they're kind of lacking a vital part, as in a BANISTER. There's only a wall on one side, so a banister is pretty essential. Some painters are here right now doing some faux painting (wow, something my dad doesn't know how to do), and of course the wall that they're doing this on is the stair wall. I was up in my room practicing and my cell phone rang. It was my mom who was downstairs (haha) saying that she just made some lunch and that I needed to be very careful going down stairs. Well, there was only about 5 inches between the ladders and the edge of the stairs, and still no banister! It was scary, but obviously I didn't die.

I'll add a picture sometime. My camera is upstairs at the moment, and I'm not looking forward to that trek.

Oh, and "scrape, scrape" is what the painting sounds like...

Shoes x 2

Ok, I don't really have anything to blog about, but Amber was whining about my blog not being updated. Then I complained about hers not being updated either, and her last post was also December 5. hehhh. Great minds think alike and wear the same shoes. The same two pairs of shoes even. Too bad our feet aren't the same size.


Yeah, I got nothin'.

But at least now you have a picture to look at! (as of Wednesday...are you happy now, Jill?)

The End.

Let's put that cat right back in the bag.

OMGOMG...

NO MORE CAT STUFF FOR ME!

TOO MUCH!

And how do I tell this to my family without hurting their feelings? (Note: By "family" I am mostly referring to my mother.)

It's ironic that the year that I've decided I DO NOT want any more cat stuff is the same year that any family member has yet to ask me what I want for Christmas.

And the reason for the freak out? Well, let me show you:

My mom thought she'd order me some pictures from art.com as an early Christmas present. It's not that I dislike them...it's just that I have SO much cat stuff as it is and really don't have any place to put these! Maybe if I keep one of them pictures, my mom won't feel as bad. (If I kept all, she would buy more because she'd feel really confident, trust me.) And there's one that I really do like a lot, which is the one in the middle. It's a small one, so I could find room for that.

So anyway, I suppose that's enough venting from me.

Edit (Wednesday): Another day, another cat picture. lskjdoriwlkjsf.

Music + Colors

So a couple months ago I found this poll that basically asked musicians if they associated colors with certain music keys and if so, what they were. (This is called synaesthesia, if you were wondering.) Anyway, I found it very interesting because not only do I associate colors with keys, I'm known to plan my recital outfits around the keys that my pieces are in. This is often tricky because I don't want to have to change what I'm wearing, but then I don't want to "clash" with the music. The strongest key/color association I have is E-flat Major/green and F minor/red(dish). (And if we want to be really dorky, those are the keys of the Brahms viola/clarinet sonatas.....) Anyway, the results of the poll have been published. Now, there are no right or wrong answers, but I found it interesting that the colors I picked generally went with the majority, but not always. Here were mine:

E Major - yellow
E-flat Major - green
D Major - blue
D-flat Major - purple
C Major - white
C minor - black

This was REALLY interesting - "the colours shift from red to violet in the rainbow as the keys move from sharp to flat." I had never realized that, yet I always picture scales in my head as rainbows.

Ok, I apologize for the obscene amount of nerd content in this post.

Whoa.

Gobble, gobble.

SO FULL.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Some food for thought.

While driving back from Akron the other night, I got to thinking about how many people travel for the Thanksgiving holiday. Sure, it's meant to be a time for togetherness. But really, when you think about it, most people eat turkey for Thanksgiving and most turkeys are rather large and therefore feed a large number of people. So blame it on the birds, yeah? Then there are turduckens... If you don't know what these are, you should look 'em up. I've never had one myself, but really, I'm ok with only one type of meat. What's funny is Yahoo! had an article about them and then had a link saying "consider tofurkey instead". Honestly, if someone is wanting to have a tri-meat dinner, are they really going to change their mind and cook up some tofu instead? Quite literally, it's:

vs.

Personally, neither look very appetizing, but the tofurkey looks a whole lot better...

"Ich spiele die Bratsche!" "WHAT??"

My last official recital was a year ago today (well, not technically because it was the 19th, but it was a Saturday). I should remember it by hacking through some of that music again. Afterall, since then I've pretty much been practicing ONLY orchestral excerpts... What an awful realization! Maybe I should finally listen to that recital CD just to reassure myself that I can play sonatas and such. Or at least that I "used-to-could"....


Aww, I miss Alicja... I'm pretty sure she probably doesn't miss Cleveland and that LA is suiting her just fine. ;)

Oh, hooray.

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I think I would have freaked out if it said anything other than that (as in more than 1) because I'm pretty sure most people with my last name are related and there aren't any other Jessica's.

By the way, I saw Borat yesterday in Toledo of all places, so I'm content now. It was hilarious, but if you haven't seen it, be prepared for a lot of male nudity....

For some reason, I'm so sleepy today! I guess it's because I ran this morning. Brrr, it's really cold in here. I'm at work (yes, I'm a bad person...judge away!), but am still getting things done because I'm blogging in spurts. Time to stop now, though.

My bedspread is in the dryer.

Haha, wow....I turned pages for a friend's recital tonight, and I'm not in school anymore! Makes me feel useful, I suppose.

It seems like no one has ever seen Ali G and I want to see Borat!! I guess it's not a prerequisite, but it seems like one would appreciate it more... Jill, you've seen Ali G, right? I feel like I had watched some episodes in NY with you and Julianne on her computer... BOOYAKASHA!

Just saw Running With Scissors, and wow, it was a lot more depressing than the book! The book was hilarious, but if you kept in mind that what you were reading actually did happen to the author, it's pretty shocking.

Methinks it's time to wake up my viola. See, it's been sleeping since I tucked it in after its little audition in San Diego. Now I've got to learn some music for Toledo and Akron.

I feel like this blog is a lesson in the use of "it's" and "its". And is it "use" or "usage"? Sometimes I get really paranoid about my grammar.

Ok, I think my bedspread is done now.

Halloweekend! ....and California

Boy, am I glad that it's November, or what! The past couple months have been crazy, and October was no exception. This last week was especially eventful.

First off, a few friends of mine threw a Halloween party last weekend, which was fantastic, of course. However, I was still trying to figure out what to be a few days before. Procrastinating can sometimes be good, but for this instance it was bad because I needed to be practicing a lot and my costume needed to be cheap. Here is where cheap means make-your-own-costume, and that I did! Well, that I tried. To make a long story short, I wanted to be the Green M&M and thought it would just be like making a round pillow, which should be easy. Well....my one and only creation that involved a sewing machine was a sunflower vest I made in my 8th grade Home Ec class. Luckily, Heather (happily!) came to the rescue and helped me with my costume on Thursday night and I must say the end result was quite fabulous!


Here are some pictures from the party. I know I posted them on Facebook, but they got all messed up on there! By the way, click on 'em for the full size.

This is my friend Lauren who is going to Kent with her quartet.
We went to Peabody together!

Here are the Bad Girls reunited...OW!

There's always room for some roommate love.

So we went out after the party, and this is one of
the pictures I took after we got back...

So yes, it was a fun night indeed, and the next morning I got on a flight to San Diego. (Side note: my feet and legs HATED me for wearing those heels all night!) My audition was Monday morning, and I was number 2, as in the second person of the day because I was in the 8:30 group. Lovely... Anyway, I thought I played pretty well because I didn't mess up or anything, but I guess it wasn't perfect since nobody advanced in my group. Oh well. Luckily, I have an aunt and uncle out there, so it was like a mini vacation! They showed me as much of San Diego as they could because it had been 15 years since my last visit there. Let me just say that they certainly fed me well... It was a good time, and the weather was nice. Now I'm back in Cleveland and guess what? It's snowing! :( Here are a couple pictures from CA (more to follow once I get some off my phone):

This is my aunt and me eating Mexican food
and drinking mango margaritas! Yum...

Me in the botanical garden at Balboa Park.

A giant palm tree!

Purdy orchid...

Mango martinis! Such lushes.

Eww....

1. Why must people smoke IN the bus stop? By this, I mean why do they stand in the shell of it while other people are waiting there?

2. Why do some people just absolutely refuse to swallow their own saliva? It's actually illegal to spit in Singapore! Maybe I should move there... And just so I don't sound like an obnoxious whiner, this is in reference to a guy who was spitting at least once per minute today. (Yes, this was also at the bus stop...)

Ok, I'm done now.

Haha, I sound like a grandma.

Short 'n Sweet

This is to appease you blog readers, but I need to practice, so it's not a whole lotta details...

-Got back from Oregon yesterday with no real job, but I get to try again in 2 1/2 weeks with San Diego...

-Playing with Canton this week, Akron next week, and Toledo in a few weeks. It's nice to have some gigs lined up!

-It freaking SNOWED here this afternoon......it's October 12th!!! That's NOT ok.

-Our heat is on now, so no more cold hands. :)

-Really need to practice! Oh, and make the "Call of Shame" to my teacher...heh.

Umm, here's a picture of Oregon from the airplane. I'm sad that I didn't have my camera with me while flying in because Monday was a perfectly clear, beautiful day. Portland must have been sad that I wasn't staying and gotten all misty.....

BRRRR!

Our apartment is so COLD!

This makes practicing really not fun.

My homeless gloves aren't even helping.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

I am evil!

Not too much new to report. The viola and I have been spending lots of time together and it's been great. We've gone on walks, listened to the metronome, traveled to some exciting places, plopped and slurred, made music with friends, and most importantly, we strive to achieve Vernon's "Five Things" in every excerpt so that someday we can win a job together.

Edit: This isn't really evil...just having a little fun. Afterall, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

Good fer nuthin'....

So I have this coupon for a free Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee from Yahoo, but really there aren't any Dunkin' Donuts around here. It's only good for today, too. lame-o.

Take this however you like.....

Make your own sign at Ronald McHummer.

This apartment is quiet and cold!

Both of my roommates are out of town and it's freaking cold outside! Ok, it's 57, but it's technically still summer! That is cold, coming from Texas. Anyway, tonight I had dinner at Aladdin's (huMMMMMMus!) with my friend Lauren from Peabody! She just moved from Boston to Kent with her quartet because they're going to be grad assistants. It's so nice to see friends you haven't seen in years, and there is always a lot to talk about. At this age though, you always find out about people who have gotten married, which is weird.

Brrrrr!! Really, this is ridiculous. It hasn't even been Labor Day yet, and I know it's on Monday, but still! Gosh, I've got auditions out the wazoo coming up. Starting next Saturday, I've got four in a week! Luckily three are local. I need to buy tickets/make reservations for St. Louis.....scary, scary. Wow, I'm really sleepy, so I guess I'll save that for another day and go to bed.

This blog isn't very well organized, but that's ok, says me. Better than nothin'!

Silly work.

This isn't something I do, but I feel like part of today's events at work should be shared. No names will be used, and I'll keep it as generic as possible...not that either of the two people I work with would know about this.

So, I work at this "music organization" that is always trying to raise money. There is going to be a big fund-raising event next year with a whopping price tag of $500 per plate (yeah..), and two very wealthy women (self-proclaimed "professional volunteers") are helping to organize it. Today was the third time that the ladies had come by for a meeting with the boss, and when I got there, they were having a conference call with an extremely wealthy philanthropist who frequently contributes to local arts organizations. Their call started off with small talk about country music (?!), and my coworker informed me that their intention was to ask for a donation of $10k (which I thought was a lot). Well, since they were sitting where I needed to be, I went into the copy room to schedule a couple auditions. Upon returning to the main room, I was informed that the ladies actually asked for $100k(!!), and when that was refused they said that $75k would be ok! Sheesh! Oh, to be so rich that all you have to do is ask.

Anyway, that was the most amusing part and I should go to bed, so that's all.

Well, I'll be!

I just posted this on Rachel's wall on Facebook ('cause I'm weird like that) and thought I'd share it here too:

Rudy's Cream Corn

2 (16-oz.) pkgs. frozen corn
1 cup whipping cream or half and half
1 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
6 tsp. sugar
pepper to taste
2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. flour

Mix everything except butter and flour. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 min. Mix flour and butter, add corn mixture. Remove from heat. You can put in more or less flour to get the consistency you like.

Rudy's is a barbeque place in Texas (Amber HATES it 'cause they make you eat off of wax paper)...and this is from a cookbook my aunt and uncle gave me from their church in Boerne. I haven't tried it, but might make it for a BBQ this weekend. If so, I'll post the results! (And by the way, as you can tell, it's not the healthiest of recipes...)

Diva Moment

Why can't all these auditions be more convenient for ME?? (meaning: why can't they be a little more spread out and have more excerpts in common??)

Hmph...

Alley Adventures

Well, evidently there's a raccoon on my building's fire escape which must have prompted one of my neighbors to call the cops. Who knew that was 911 worthy? Ok, maybe they didn't call the emergency line, but still! The cops are here trying to get it down the stairs! Maybe they're worried it has rabies? It's all weird if you ask me......

I need a haircut!

My hair is out of control! It's gotten past the 'tolerable' point, which means it is unruly and just doesn't look good. I'm also really in the mood to cut a whole heck of a lot off, like I did junior year of college (and no, I didn't literally cut my hair...someone else did!). So what's stopping me? I don't know what kind of cut would look good! The previous one was cute, but I don't want to do the same thing. Besides, that was 3 years ago, so I suppose it's out of style.... If anyone has seen any good cuts, let me know! Here's a refresher of how my hair looked at age 21:


Note: Haircut Inspiration was Reese Witherspoon's hair in Sweet Home Alabama. Rachel and I were watching it while I was in SA over spring break, and she said, "Let's cut our hair like hers!" and as always, I said, "Ok!" Of course, I let her go first, which made her think I wasn't actually going to go through with it, but I did!

Ughhhhhhh

Just spent entirely too long fixing my own mistakes, but good news is that my computer is back to using its own paid-for internet and our wireless is secure. That's right, no more stealing our internet, Coventry-ites! (Is that what we're called?)

Melting.....

IT.

IS.

SO.

HOT!

(and humid!)

Yes, I'm from Texas where it's actually hotter, but the nice thing about being down there is that there is A/C everywhere! We don't have that in our place....

Weirdness

So, anyone who knows me knows how much fun I have with Google. Well, I Googled my blog title "Green beans 'n green Jell-O" and found the weirdest thing! Of course the first result was my actual blog, but the next two are from this site called blogshares.com. Supposedly it's "the fantasy blog stock market" and I think the reason mine must have gotten on there is because I've got links listed. Hmm, I guess I'll paste an excerpt from the about section because I don't really much myself:

BlogShares is a fantasy stock market where weblogs are the companies. Players invest fictional dollars on shares in blogs. Blogs are valued by their incoming links and add value to other blogs by linking to them. Prices can go up or down based on trading and the underlying value of the blog. No actual ownership of blogs is transfered. BlogShares is purely a fictional marketplace.

It's both interesting and creepy...especially when they keep mentioning how "addictive" it is on the rest of that page.

Back to the grind.

Day 12 back in Cleveland now.

Been working everyday, practicing, and helping friends move.

Tuesday was sad because the cable company took our tv cable away. This ended the four year streak of free cable.

On Thursday, the vet told me yet again that Monkey was fat. She is not! Supposedly she's 2 lbs. overweight, but I guess that's a lot in cat lbs. She also managed to break off part of her upper right canine at some point, which I hadn't noticed. Very sad, indeed, but she's fine.

It's freaking hot in Cleveland. Well, not actually, but when it's humid and you don't have A/C, it is.

Took Amber to the airport at 5am this morning, and now she's kicking back in Aruba with her family. Lucky girl she is!

Had the pleasure of seeing Gwen last Sunday as she and a friend were driving from Boston to Chicago and stayed the night here. Got caught up with news and such, and found out that she's moving to Austria in September! It's now my goal to win a job so I can go visit her as a treat. That means I should get myself a passport!

Wanting to cut off my hair again....but not really knowing what sort of style to go with.

My apartment is very quiet.

And I can't even turn on the tv for some background noise anymore. :( waaa!

Didn't actually have an allergic reaction, by the way, so that's a good thing.

Owww....

The base joint of my right thumb has been hurting for a couple hours, and I'm all worried because I might be allergic to Minocycline like Rachel! She had a really crazy reaction to it several years ago, and it started with the same joint hurting. The thing is, I've taken this stuff before, but started taking the name brand kind a month ago at 200mg a day. Her reaction started a month after she started taking it.... yikes! But I'm probably just being paranoid. :P

p.s. If you don't know what Minocycline is, it's an antibiotic that doctors prescribe for skin.

Whoaaaa Nelly!

So I just got back from the coast an hour or so ago, and boy there are a ton of viola openings! Besides the little guys, there are some big ones: St. Louis, San Diego, Minnesota, Pittsburgh (well, not 'til March), and probably some more, but I don't have access to a union paper. Most will take place in September and October, and the San Diego and Minnesota auditions are basically at the same time. I guess it's sort of good that these are all in the same time frame, but that might cause some financial problems for us poor, starving auditionees.

Speaking of finances, my mom said the loan people have started sending me bills here already. What happened to my 6 month grace period?? Yuckyuckyuck! And they want me to pay them $300/month for 20 years or something ridiculous like that. Aaaaaaaa. I need to change my repayment plan 'cause I can't make payments like that right now. Anyhoo, I suppose I will go practice now. Gotta get me a job!

Freedom Fries

-Still bored....

-Finished P&P last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

-Am impressed that it didn't make me cry because most movies seem to.

-Wouldn't mind if Mr. Darcy had the hots for me.

-Think my cat is enjoying all the extra playtime but is also annoyed by me.

-Thinking about volunteering at an animal shelter when I get back.

-Also thinking about finding some adventurous ways to cook that meet the following criteria: cheap, quick, and healthy.

-It sounds like New Year's.

-Noticed the other day that the eyeshadow I use most often is curiously named. The trio is called Golden Sunset, while the individual colors are First Light, Golden Sunrise, and Morning Cocoa.

-rahrahrah.

-Don't have plans for tonight, which is lame, but still no friends in town.

-Am disappointed in people for not leaving comments!

-Realize that I don't usually write in my blog so much, so people may not know that there are things to read.

-Also realize that my life isn't so interesting. I mean I'm bored afterall, aren't I?

-Am doing something different by using the list format.

-Happy 4th O' July!

Edit: Every entry on this page as of today was written in Texas! Also, I've blogged 5 days in a row! What a record.

Practice break.

My right wrist is sore because I helped my dad and the guy helping him carry this ginormous roll of carpet up the stairs on Saturday. It was insanely heavy! I think I twisted my wrist funny because it hurt right when I started to lift. Oh, and no black eye, by the way. Disappointing, I know. It feels like there is a tiny bump, but it's not noticeable. Maybe I can get Rachel to punch me when she gets back! Of course I don't like pain, but I think it would be funny. (Yes, I'm a little odd, and no, I don't actually want a black eye.)

Yesterday I found Pride and Prejudice at the Hollywood Video by my house, and it's on DVD! This means there are only two DVDs in one case which means I didn't have to look like a fool renting 6 tapes of the same movie. Besides the fact that I don't have to keep changing tapes and rewinding them all at the end, the DVD has all these dorky special features on it. Yes!! So last night, I watched the first half (3 hours!), and so far so good. Colin Firth is an excellent Mr. Darcy!

So yes, I'm still bored. Going back to Cleveland in a little over 2 weeks, so I suppose that's a good thing. Strange that there won't be any school though. Oh yeah, and before then (specifically next Monday-Tuesday) Rachel and I are going to the coast! My parents have a time-share condo at Port Royal, and we have a tradition of going out there every summer, only this time it is minus the folks! The pool is huge because it is 3 pools connected with waterfalls.


There is even a slide, but now there's a new one that's actually two of those twisty slides (not pictured in this photo). Can't forget about the pool bars either. They've got underwater stools so you can swim up and have a drink! So yes, much fun will be had, I'm sure. Hopefully the suit still fits, but I'll run some more this week just in case. heh.

Ok, back to the vla. No one leaves comments these days! Tsk!

I ♥ Gilles Apap!

Amber has a CD of his, and it's so much fun! I think it's "Gilles Apap and the Transylvanian Mountain Boys". Today I was looking around on the Viola List, and they were talking about him! Someone had posted a link to this video, which is supposed to be a cadenza to the 3rd Mozart Violin Concerto, but it's so not a normal cadenza! It's great! I wish I could play like him. So much fun! Here's his website.

I'm so BORED!

What happens when Rachel and Josh are on their honeymoon and Jill goes to Spain? Jessica has no friends to hang out with in San Antonio! So in honor of being bored, I will enlighten you (my vast number of blog readers, I'm sure) with what all I've been doing here.

This is silly to say knowing who reads this, but Rachel and Josh got married last Sunday, the 25th. This means that I spent the past month helping out with wedding stuff, co-threw a (previously mentioned) lingerie shower and bachelorette party, and now don't really have anything to do. I was supposed to take the Kansas City audition a couple weeks ago, but tsk tsk...I canceled it because I didn't really feel like I was playing my best, plus there was just a lot of stuff going on. My teachers aren't aware of this (unless they are and I'm the unaware one), which is typical on my part. Oops. Anyway, I didn't practice really for about 2 1/2 weeks which is really BAD. My callouses are dangerously thin, so I started practicing again a few days ago. It sucks though 'cause I don't really have anything to practice or to practice for! This is when I realize it would have been good to have gone to a festival..... Oh well. I guess I'll just chew up some excerpts, and then once back in Cleveland, will see what looks good in the music stash.

New paragraph! So, I got to hang out with Jill a bit this week, which was fun. She got here the 15th, but we didn't see each other much due to weddingness. Anyway, we had dinner at Twins on Tuesday, then watched TV and 10 Things I Hate About You at Josh's apartment (he's got cable and movies, and I've got his and Rachel's keys to check mail). Then on Thursday, her mom took us to Rosario's in the King William District and the Tower of the Americas. Links, links! [Now you realize the extent of my boredom.] That was really fun, and even though everyone who I know reads this has Facebook, I will put up some pictures.



Hmm, interesting layout. Anyway, Jill left today because she's going to Spain and Cyprus for free! Augh! This music festival asked her teacher for another student, so she didn't even have to audition either. That's my kind of festival! Meanwhile, I got new carpet in my room today. Oh boy! It's supposedly today's version of shag carpeting, and I can see why, but it's really scaled down. No Austin Powers here. Although Austin isn't too far away. I didn't mean for that to be a really bad joke, by the way.

So yeah, I'm really, really bored! Last night I went over to Josh's apartment again and finally watched the Notebook for the first time. Boy did I bawl my eyes out! I don't think it was even sad..just makes you feel sad, if that makes sense. If I were a guy, I'd totally have a crush on the girl (played by Rachel McAdams). Today I tried looking for the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries (the one with Colin Firth!) at the video store, but they were missing the 5th tape (there are 6!), and I would have felt silly renting a 6-tape movie. I reeeeeeally want to see it though! Instead of watching that though, I tried to watch Sideways, but fell asleep because I don't really like wine, and I'm not having a mid-life crisis which means I didn't really feel like I could relate with the characters......

Wow, this is the longest entry ever! Haha, I just remembered that I hit the bone right above my eye on a coat rack hook today, so I might have a black eye tomorrow! I really should not be looking forward to that, but I'm so bored that I think it might be fun. People will think I got in a fight! That would be so not me! hahaha. Speaking of pain, I went to the dentist on Tuesday, and they fixed a cavity without numbing me! The shot would have hurt more though because it didn't hurt to begin with, and it was really shallow. Anyway, it's a good thing my cat is here because I'd be even more bored. Here is what happens when I have nothing to do, a cat, and a camera with a timer:


I guess it could've been worse. This is when I kick myself for not keeping in touch with more than two people from San Antonio, especially when one is like me and doesn't actually live here anymore. And I'm not brave enough to go out on a Saturday night by myself and socialize with strangers. That would probably be a dumb idea anyway.

Ok, well that's enough. Now what to do...

Edit: I should come up with a different word for 'really' because I use it way too much! But really, what do you use? Ha... I guess 'very' would work here and there.

Behold...

Man, I eat a lot of cheese when I'm in Texas! That's all there really is to eat at my parents' house anyway, and I have no car, so... Maybe all that calcium will trim my waistline like those commercials say! hahahaaaa... Too bad I don't have an Indian mother who might have cooked Aloo Gobi last night so I could eat the leftovers between bread.

Maybe I'll just leave it at that.

But maybe I should say that Jill and I watched Bend It Like Beckham last night and one of the special features was of the director preparing Aloo Gobi (who mentioned the bit about leftovers).

Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham?

Oh, I'm a dork, dork, dork.

Time to update.

I was going to be really good about blogging while here in Texas, but it seems like I'm being the exact opposite! Oh well, I'm only here for so long and things have been busy. Rachel's sister-in-law Garyn and I threw a lingerie shower for Rachel on Friday, and I think it was successful because it met our goals: fun, cute, and not awkward (for the most part). There was a definite pink and orange theme because those are the colors of the wedding. Oh yes, and gerbera daisies. Here are some pictures:



Sarah and Rachel

Rachel, Christina, Sarah, and Jenn

Rachel's mom and Garyn

haha....

Rachel and me

Howdy!

I'm in Texas now! It's sad that I didn't get to see the welcome sign this time since I didn't drive.

But I think 3 hours compared to 24 makes it ok....

So I've mastered the viola, eh? Right...

In case anyone stumbles upon this blog and wonders why in the world we're wearing PINK tassles of all colors, it's the graduation color for music. Our hoods also had purple on them, so we were quite the sight, I'm sure. Anyway, the ceremony was obnoxiously long, and I felt bad because I had told my family it would probably be short since only about 140 of us were graduating. Welllll, the actual handing out of degrees/diplomas didn't take very long at all, but they had so many introductions and speeches for/from people receiving honorary doctorates and alumni achievement awards that the whole thing took 2 1/2 hours! Talk about unbearable. It's over now and I have my degree, so all is good.

My family (parents and sister) came up for this, which was nice, but it was especially nice to spend a lot of time with my sister. She stayed with me while my parents stayed with my aunt and uncle, who are 45 min away. Anyway, we're about 7-8 years apart, so I was kind of an only child in middle and high school, and then I've spent the last six years across the country in college and grad school. This means that we haven't ever gotten to spend a whole lot of time together in recent years. Besides driving to/from our aunt and uncle's house many times, we walked around the Hessler Street Fair and through some shops in Little Italy, ate at a lot of yummy places, got custard!, found me some new running shoes (and made fun of my old ones), went running a couple of times, and watched the Desperate Housewives finale with Amber. Anyway, it was fun and I'm glad that she came and stayed with me.

So much for that!

Apparently I'm out of ideas for this here blog. And there is too much fun/laziness/supposed practicing to be doing instead. Here I am though because I don't want to be lame and not update when I perfectly could. Hmm, actually I have some phone calls to make! Marissa, my Baltimore roommate called me last night but I didn't hear my phone because I was out. If I had a PENNY for every time I've said, "I need to call Marissa!" I would be a rich girl! She called me almost a year ago (literally, it was last May), and I haven't called her since! We did talk that time, so it's not that I didn't call her back during all this time...but still. Gwen is also on my to-call list, but we've talked much more recently, when compared to Marissa. Gwen is also a former Peabody person, and she plays viola too.

Here's something random for your enjoyment (or not). I've driven through a lot more, so most of the east should be red. Well, everything south of NY, and everything east of Texas.

And to make myself look really pathetic, here is something really pointless for me to post. I like how it makes it look like I've been to Alaska and Hawaii! My family went on a cruise when I was four, so that's why some of the Caribbean islands are red. I think we might have stopped at a couple more places, but I only remembered a few.

Ok, enough blogging for now!

create your own visited states map
create your own visited countries map

I'm bloggin' out the wazoo!

So, I'm done with school, hence all the recent bloggage. And by done, I mean D-O-N-E! Hip hip, hooray! Still have to practice and work, of course, but I plan on spending some time reading, watching movies, and going out! Oh yeah...I haven't allowed myself to watch the must-see Sunday night tv shows (Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy), so that's another thing I just started doing.

I've been trying to figure out the going home situation, and am not quite sure what to do. I was going to drive home and take Monkey with me, but that's about 1500 miles (one-way) which comes out to 5-6 tanks of gas. My car holds 10 gallons, and the national average for gas is something like $2.89, plus I'd need to stay in a hotel (22 hour drive!), and this all gets multiplied by two, so yeah.... I think flying (even with my cat) would be cheaper. But I need my car when I'm home! Oh the drama.

Sadly there aren't any pictures to contribute. I just turned my camera on and it's acting funny, so hopefully all it needs is a charge.

I think people think I have stopped blogging. How sad. :(

Oh, but I'm not sad! School is over! Yay!

Hmm...

We need some McDreamies around here!

Spark tests are so amusing.

gezyka

You are a Helper Who Finds Missing Children Over The Internet! (Submissive Introverted Concrete Feeler) You are a HELPER WHO FINDS MISSING CHILDREN OVER THE INTERNET (SICF). You are very tentative in the world and introverted with people— which means you are the shy and silent type (hence the Internet.) But behind your reserved exterior lies a dedicated person with a passion for the concrete truth who wants to, in her heart of hearts, help find missing children. God bless you.

Compared to 14,892,357 other test takers...

43% are more Submissive than you.		36% are more Dominant than you.
21% are just as Submissive as you.
19% are more Introverted than you.		66% are more Extroverted than you.
15% are just as Introverted as you.
90% are more Abstract than you.		3% are more Concrete than you.
7% are just as Concrete as you.
87% are more Thinking than you.		6% are more Feeling than you.
7% are just as Feeling as you.

What's your personality?